Editing German orthography (section)

==Sorting==
There are three ways to deal with the umlauts in [[collation|alphabetic sorting]].
# Treat them like their base characters, as if the umlaut were not present ([[DIN]] 5007-1, section 6.1.1.4.1). This is the preferred method for dictionaries, where umlauted words ({{lang|de|Füße}} "feet") should appear near their origin words ({{lang|de|Fuß}} "foot"). In words which are the same except for one having an umlaut and one its base character (e.g. {{lang|de|Müll}} vs. {{lang|de|Mull}}), the word with the base character gets precedence.
# Decompose them (invisibly) to vowel plus {{angbr|e}} (DIN 5007-2, section 6.1.1.4.2). This is often preferred for personal and geographical names, wherein the characters are used unsystematically, as in German [[telephone directory|telephone directories]] ({{lang|de|Müller, A.; Mueller, B.; Müller, C.}}).
# They are treated like extra letters either placed
## after their base letters (Austrian phone books have {{angbr|ä}} between {{angbr|az}} and {{angbr|b}} etc.) or
## at the end of the alphabet (as in [[Swedish alphabet|Swedish]] or in extended ASCII).
[[Microsoft Windows]] in German versions offers the choice between the first two variants in its internationalization settings.

A sort of combination of nos. 1 and 2 also exists, in use in a couple of lexica: The umlaut is sorted with the base character, but an {{angbr|ae, oe, ue}} in proper names is sorted with the umlaut if it is actually spoken that way (with the umlaut getting immediate precedence). A possible sequence of names then would be {{lang|de|Mukovic; Muller; Müller; Mueller; Multmann}} in this order.

{{lang|de|Eszett}} is sorted as though it were {{angbr|ss}}. Occasionally it is treated as {{angbr|s}}, but this is generally considered incorrect. Words distinguished only by {{angbr|ß}} vs. {{angbr|ss}} are rare. The word with {{angbr|ß}} gets precedence, and {{lang|de|Geschoß}} (story of a building; South German pronunciation) would be sorted before ''Geschoss'' (projectile).{{cn|date=January 2025}}

Accents in French [[loanword]]s are always ignored in collation.

In rare contexts (e.g. in older indices) {{angbr|sch}} (phonetic value equal to English {{angbr|sh}}) and likewise {{angbr|st}} and {{angbr|ch}} are treated as single letters, but the vocalic [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]]s {{angbr|ai, ei}} (historically {{angbr|ay, ey}}), {{angbr|au, äu, eu}} and the historic {{angbr|ui, oi}} never are.

===Personal names with special characters===
German names containing umlauts ({{angbr|ä, ö, ü}}) and/or {{angbr|ß}} are spelled in the correct way in the non-machine-readable zone of the passport, but with {{angbr|AE, OE, UE}} and/or {{angbr|SS}} in the [[machine-readable zone]], e.g. {{angbr|Müller}} becomes {{angbr|MUELLER}}, {{angbr|Weiß}} becomes {{angbr|WEISS}}, and {{angbr|Gößmann}} becomes {{angbr|GOESSMANN}}. The transcription mentioned above is generally used for aircraft tickets et cetera, but sometimes (like in US visas) simple vowels are used ({{lang|de|MULLER, GOSSMANN}}). As a result, passport, visa, and aircraft ticket may display different spellings of the same name. The three possible spelling variants of the same name (e.g. {{lang|de|Müller/Mueller/Muller}}) in different documents sometimes lead to confusion, and the use of two different spellings within the same document may give persons unfamiliar with German orthography the impression that the document is a forgery.

Even before the introduction of the capital {{angbr|ẞ}}, it was recommended to use the minuscule {{angbr|ß}} as a capital letter in family names in documents (e.g. {{lang|de|HEINZ GRO'''ß'''E}}, today's spelling: {{lang|de|HEINZ GRO'''ẞ'''E}}).

German naming law accepts umlauts and/or {{angbr|ß}} in family names as a reason for an official name change. Even a spelling change, e.g. from {{lang|de|Müller}} to {{lang|de|Mueller}} or from {{lang|de|Weiß}} to {{lang|de|Weiss}} is regarded as a name change.